Nationality Germany Name Adolf Windaus | Role Chemist Awards Nobel Prize in Chemistry | |
 | ||
Doctoral students Adolf Butenandt
Erhard Fernholz Died June 9, 1959, Gottingen, Germany Education Humboldt University of Berlin Notable awards Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1928) Fields Organic chemistry, Biochemistry People also search for Adolf Butenandt, Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Gerhart Jander | ||
Adolf Windaus | Wikipedia audio article
Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (25 December 1876 – 9 June 1959) was a German chemist who won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1928 for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins. He was the doctoral advisor of Adolf Butenandt who also won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939.
Adolf Windaus was born in Berlin. His interest in chemistry was raised by lectures of Emil Fischer. He started studying medicine and chemistry in Berlin and later in Freiburg. He got his PhD in early 1900 and focused on cholesterol and other sterols at the University of Freiburg. In 1913 he became professor of chemistry at the University of Innsbruck and in 1915 he changed to the University of Göttingen where he stayed until his retirement in 1944.
He was involved in the discovery of the transformation of cholesterol through several steps to vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol). He gave his patents to Merck and Bayer and they brought out the medical Vigantol in 1927.